President Donald Trump's late-January call with Mexican President
Enrique Peña Nieto was originally reported as "a very offensive
conversation" in which Trump lambasted Peña Nieto and hinted
at harsh unilateral US action against Mexican drug traffickers.

But transcripts released by The Washington Post — which match up with parts of
excerpts that were released after the initial report —
suggest that while Trump did bring up some of those topics, the
call itself appears to have been less sinister than first
thought.

"I don't need the Mexicans. I don't need Mexico," Trumpreportedly toldthe Mexican president. "We are going to build the wall and
you all are going to pay for it, like it or not."

According to the February report, Trump complained about
the poor job Mexico's military was doing against narco
trafficking and "even suggested to [Peña Nieto] that if they are
incapable of combatting [narco trafficking] he may have to send
troops to assume this task," said Dolia Estevez,
who reported the original version of the conversation.

"It was a very offensive conversation where Trump
humiliated Peña Nieto," she said at the time.

President
Donald Trump and Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto at the Los
Pinos residence in Mexico City, August 31,
2016.REUTERS/Henry
Romero

According to The Post's
transcript, Peña Nieto's reference to migration, and its
relationship to economic conditions, prompted Trump's discussion
of security:

"We do not want them coming across. We have enough people coming
across, we want to stop it cold. ... And we have the drug lords
in Mexico that are knocking the hell out of our country. They are
sending drugs to Chicago, Los Angeles, and to New York. Up in New
Hampshire – I won New Hampshire because New Hampshire is a
drug-infested den – is coming from the southern border."

Trump did refer to what he saw as the inadequacies of
Mexico's security forces in dealing with drug traffickers and
organized crime and did mention US military support, but, based
on the transcript, the reference appears to have been less
confrontational than originally reported.

"You have some pretty tough hombres in Mexico that you may need
help with, and we are willing to help you with that big-league.
But they have to be knocked out and you have not done a good job
of knocking them out. ... And I know this is a tough group of
people, and maybe your military is afraid of them, but our
military is not afraid of them, and we will help you with that
100 percent because it is out of control – totally out of
control."

Trump went on to discuss taxes before turning to the issue
of his proposed border wall, telling Peña Nieto that his
government could not keep saying it would not pay for the wall,
"because I cannot live with that."

President
Donald Trump near the US-Mexico border outside Laredo, Texas,
during his campaign.Reuters/Rick
Wilking

"Believe it or not, this is the least important thing that
we are talking about, but politically this might be the most
important to talk about," Trump said of the wall.

"In terms of security, Mr. President, it is clear that
organized crime is just as much our enemy as it is the enemy of
your administration," Peña Nieto responded.

Trump's reply again referenced military cooperation:

"Enrique, you and I have to knock it out – you and I have to
knock the hell out of them. Listen, I know how tough these guys
are – our military will knock them out like you never thought of,
we will work to help you knock them out because your country does
not want that. Your citizens are being killed all over the place,
your police officers are being shot in the head, and your
children are being killed. And we will knock them out."

Peña Nieto replied that the traffickers in question were
being financed in large part by the US demand for illegal drugs
and armed with weapons flowing over the border illegally — points
he made with Trump's
predecessor last year.

The
US border with Mexico is seen in Nogales, Arizona, January 31,
2017.Reuters/Lucy
Nicholson

The border wall continues to be a central part of Trump's
presidency.

Despite his earlier insistence that Mexico would finance
its construction, however, his administration and the Republican
Party appear to have accepted Peña Nieto's refusal, including $1.6
billion as a down payment on the wall in a spending bill
passed by the House at the end of July.

US law-enforcement agencies have long and deep
relationships with their Mexican counterparts, and Trump doesn't
appear to have made an significant changes to US-Mexico security
cooperation during his first six months in office either.

Mexican
drug lord Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman arrives at Long Island
MacArthur airport in New York, January 19, 2017, after his
extradition from Mexico.Thomson
Reuters

The latest sign of that cooperation is a BuzzFeed report
that a US Marshals Service plane circled a town in northwest
Mexico a few days prior to and on the morning of the capture of a
bodyguard for one of Sinaloa cartel chief Joaquin "El Chapo"
Guzman's closest associates.

The details of Trump and Peña Nieto's actual exchange
are unlikely to boost the domestic image of either
leader.

Peña Nieto, whose tenure has been blighted by numerous
scandals and missteps, has seen his job-approval rating fall into the
teens, while his party, the center-right PRI, is in third place among
voters a year ahead of the country's presidential
election.